'  ftOLLINS/OLLEGE  LI 

WiNTR  PARK,  FlU 


BRARY 
RIDA 


NATIONAL 
SESQUICENTENNIAL  EXPOSITION 

PHILADELPHIA,  1926 


Boarding  a  vessel  at  a  United  States  quarantine  station 

THE  UNITED  STATES 
PUBLIC  HEALTH  SERVICE 

WHAT  DOES  IT  DO  FOR  ME? 

SHIPS  and  trade;  railroads  and  travel;  immigrants;  clean  ports; 
infected  ports ;  epidemics ;  bills  of  health.  These  spell  duty  for  the 
Public  Health  Service.  You  may  have  noticed  soon  after  your 
ship  passed  the  Golden  Gate  or  Sandy  Hook  she  hoisted  a  yellow  flag 
and  the  quarantine  officer  (Public  Health  Service)  came  aboard  to  look 
at  you.     And  if  you  came  from  a  port  having  cholera  or  bubonic  plague 

J.  103180°— 26  1 


United  States  Public  Health  Service 


A  Marine  Hospital  ambulance  meeting  a  ship  at  dock 

or  typhus  or  yellow  fever,  he  looked  at  you  twice.  You  may  have  seen 
this  same  doctor  in  the  Philippines,  Hawaii,  Porto  Rico,  Virgin  Islands, 
or  the  Canal  Zone  a  dozen  years  ago,  or  in  a  consul's  office  in  China  or 
Europe.  He  is  moved  from  time  to  time  and  alternates  in  quarantine 
and  hospital  or  other  duties. 

When  your  ship  docked,  you  saw  the  marine  hospital  ambulance  there 
to  meet  that  freighter  for  a  seaman  who  broke  his  leg  the  fourth  day  out. 
The  captain  did  a  good  first-aid  job  on  him  after  talking  it  over  by  radio 
with  the  nearest  marine  hospital.  Yes,  the  marine  hospitals  are  run  by 
the  Public  Health  Service  too — have  been  for  128  years.  It  used  to  be 
called  the  Marine  Hospital  Service.  In  every  port  of  the  United  States 
and  insular  possessions  where  there  is  water  enough  to  float  a  ship  worth 
while  there  is  a  marine  hospital  or  a  contract  with  some  other  hospital, 
and  a  place  where  sick  and  disabled  seamen  from  American  merchant 
ships  are  cared  for.  Not  the  Devil  Dogs — they  go  to  the  naval  hospitals; 
the  marine  hospitals  are  for  merchant  seamen  and  men  from  Coast  Guard 
cutters,  life-saving  stations,  lightships,  and  lighthouses.  An  aid  given  to 
merchant  vessels  since  1798,  or  since  the  Government  was  only  nine 
years  old,  has  become,  one  might  say,  almost  a  habit.  The  sailors  began 
it.  They  paid,  until  1882,  money  from  their  own  pockets,  at  first  20 
cents  per  month  and  later  40  cents,  to  support  the  marine  hospitals. 
That's  why  the  old  salts  are  proud  of  the  places  and  say,  "We  built  'em." 
But  about  forty  years  ago  Uncle  Sam  decided  he  would  support  the 
sailors'  hospitals  himself,  and  he  also  uses  some  of  these  hospital  beds  for 
taking  care  of  employees  of  his  who  get  hurt  while  on  duty.  More  than 
3,000  hospital  beds  are  constantly  occupied  by  old  salts,  showing  that  in 
bearing  this  expense,  which,  according  to  maritime  laws,  the  ships  them- 
selves would  otherwise  have  to  bear,  the  United  States  Government  is 
giving  its  merchant  marine  no  small  assistance. 


United  States  Public  Health  Service 


Muster  of  immigrants  for  inspection  by  medical  officers,  U.  S.  Public  Heaith  Service 

When  you  said  good-bye  to  the  captain  he  was  mustering  the  steerage 
passengers  for  the  medical  examination  that  all  immigrants  must  pass, 
either  at  Ellis  Island  or  elsewhere.  The  medical  officer  examining  these 
immigrants  wore  the  same  kind  of  uniform  that  the  quarantine  officer 
and  ambulance  doctor  wore  because  he  is  also  from  the  Public  Health 
Service.  His  buttons  and  cap  bear  the  same  corps  device  that  you  saw 
on  the  ambulance  and  on  the  quarantine  launch's  flag — the  fouled 
anchor,  sign  of  a  ship  in  trouble.  Yes,  the  Public  Health  Service 
examines  all  immigrants  entering  the  country,  in  order  that  the  feeble- 
minded, the  insane,  and  the  diseased  may  be  sent  back;  and  now  these 
medical  officers  are  also  stationed  in  Great  Britain,  Irish  Free  State, 
Belgium,  Holland,  Sweden,  Nor^\ay,  Denmark,  Germany,  Poland,  and 
other  foreign  countries,  to  make  examinations  before  the  immigrant 
sails. 

The  boatswain  had  a  grievance?  I  know.  Too  bad!  He  is  an  able 
man  and  wanted  to  become  a  pilot  and  then  a  licensed  officer  and  maybe 
some  day  a  captain  and  have  a  ship  of  his  own.  But  he  could  not  pass 
the  vision  and  color  vision  tests.  Sure  they  have  to.  A  man  who  can 
not  tell  a  green  light  from  a  red  one  has  no  business  at  the  wheel.  He 
must  be  able  to  see  test  signals  through  fog  and  smoke  and  call  colors 
right,  or  the  doctor  throws  him.  Yes,  the  Public  Health  Service  makes 
the  examinations.  There  is  not  a  licensed  officer  on  any  American  ship 
that  sails  the  seven  seas  who  did  not  first  have  to  go  to  the  marine 


United  States  Public  Health  Service 


A  Marine  Hospital  where  merchant  seamen  are  treated 

hospital  office  for  his  certificate.  They  must  qualify  in  first  aid  to 
the  injured,  too,  and  the  doctors  teach  them  what  to  do  in  all  kinds  of 
emergencies  before  the  Steamboat  Inspection  Service  will  issue  their 
licenses. 

Railroads  and  travel?  Maybe  you  drank  water  on  your  train.  It's 
all  right,  don't  worry.  The  Public  Health  Service  names  the  places 
and  the  conditions  where  drinking  water  may  be  taken  on  trains  just 
as  it  does  for  ships  engaged  in  interstate  trade.  You  may  have  noticed 
that  nurse,  too,  in  the  Pullman.  She  had  a  patient  in  the  drawing  room 
who  had  some  communicable  disease.  She  had  to  have  her  permits 
from  the  Public  Health  Service  and  her  instructions,  and  you  may  be 
sure  that  compartment  was  well  fumigated  before  it  was  used  again. 
The  patient?  Oh,  it  may  have  been  a  leper  en  route  to  the  National 
Home  for  Lepers  (Marine  Hospital  No.  66)  in  Louisiana,  where  the  Public 
Health  Service  has  nearly  300  such  patients,  and  where  it  is  gradually 
rounding  them  up  to  wipe  out  the  disease  in  this  country. 

Does  it  help  the  States?  Yes,  the  Public  Health  Service  assists  State 
and  local  health  authorities  in  life  saving,  disease-preventing  programs 
which  save  more  each  year  than  the  Service  costs  the  tax  payers. 

Common  colds?  Nearly  everybody  has  two  or  three  a  year.  Forty 
per  cent  of  the  time  lost  in  industry  is  due  to  respiratory  diseases.  The 
Public  Heakh  Service  is  studying  these  diseases,  so  that  hcakh  officers  can 
better  control  them. 


United  States  Public  Health  Service 


5 


Immigrants  with  contagious  disease  are  excluded 

What  else  does  the  Public  Health  Service  do?  It  investigates  the 
pollution  of  rivers  and  a  multitude  of  other  conditions  affecting  the  health 
of  the  people,  inspects  and  licenses  establishments  manufacturing  anti- 
toxins and  vaccines,  and  in  its  Hygienic  Laboratory  at  Washington  tests 
these  products;  it  supplies  medical  officers  for  all  cruising  cutters  of  the 
Coast  Guard,  suppresses  epidemics,  supervises  sanitation  in  the  national 
parks,  makes  the  physical  examinations  of  civil-service  applicants,  and 
treats  civil  employees  of  the  Government  who  are  injured  or  disabled  as 
the  result  of  their  employment.  It  examines  claimants  for  pensions,  too, 
and  decides  whether  persons  employed  by  the  Government  suspected  of 
having  communicable  diseases  are  a  menace  to  other  employees  or  the 
public.  After  the  World  War  the  Public  Health  Service  was  the  principal 
agency  whereby  World  War  veterans  were  cared  for,  and  in  1922  it 
turned  over  to  the  Veterans'  Bureau  ^7  hospitals,  with  17,500  beds,  900 
doctors,  1,400  nurses,  and  9,200  other  employees. 

And  in  time  of  war  the  Public  Health  Service  becomes  a  part  of  the 
military  forces  of  the  Government. 

The  story  of  over  a  hundred  years  of  work  can  not  be  told  in  a  few  pages, 
so  only  a  few  facts  about  the  Service  will  be  given. 


United  States  Public  Health  Service 


Drinking  water  on  trains  is  certified  by  the  U.  S.  Public  Health  Service 

FACTS  ABOUT  THE  UNITED  STATES 
PUBLIC  HEALTH  SERVICE 

Organized  in  1798;  formerly  called  the  United  States  Marine  Hospital 
Service. 

It  is  a  bureau  in  the  Treasury  Department;  has  a  Surgeon  General  and 
a  corps  of  medical  officers  commissioned  by  the  President. 

Conducts  the  national  quarantine  stations;  yearly  inspects  more  than 
22,000  vessels  and  2,000,000  persons. 

Makes  the  medical  examination  of  all  immigrants.  Much  of  this  work 
is  done  by  its  officers  in  foreign  countries. 

Investigates  the  diseases  of  man ;  publishes  and  distributes  pamphlets  on 
various  diseases.  Publishes  weekly  reports  of  health  officers  at  home  and 
abroad. 

Conducts  research  at  its  great  Hygienic  Laboratory  in  Washington, 
D.  C,  and  at  a  number  of  field  stations  throughout  the  country. 

Examines  serums  and  vaccines  for  purity  and  potency;  issues 
licenses  to  approved  manufacturers. 


United  States  Public  Health  Service 


Medical  advice  to  siiips  at  sea  and  public  health  tall<s  are  sent  by  radio 


Demonstrated  that  pellagra  is  due  to  improper  diet,  and  curable. 
Furnishes  a  standard  unit  to  insure  diphtheria  antitoxin  of 
proper  strength. 

Discovered  tularemia,  a  disease  conveyed  from  wild  rabbits 
to  persons. 

Identified  the  American  hookworm  as  a  cause  of  anemia. 
Prepared  a  standard  milk  ordinance,  now  adopted  by  ten  States. 
Studied  pollution  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  rivers,  and  the 
methods  of  controlling  it. 
Controlled  bubonic  plague  in  our  ports  by  destroying  rats  and  ground 
squirrels. 

Freed  New  Orleans  from  yellow  fever   in    1905   by  mosquito  control. 
Reduced  the  prevalence  of  malaria  in  the  South. 

Operates   25   marine  hospitals  and    150   relief  stations   for  merchant 
seamen. 

Treats  annually  200,000  beneficiaries,  furnishes  1,342,000 
hospital  patient  days  and  493,000  out-patient  treatments. 

Beneficiaries  include  merchant  seamen.  Coast  Guardsmen, 
injured  Federal  employees,  lighthouse  keepers,  and  patients  of 
Army,  Navy,  and  United  States  Veterans'  Bureau. 

Marine  Hospital  No.  9,  at  Fort  Stanton,  New  Mexico,  is  for 
tuberculous  merchant  seamen  and  Coast  Guardsmen. 

Conducts  the  National  Leper  Home  with  300  patients  at  Car- 
ville,  Louisiana. 


8 


United  States  Public  Health  Service 


Antitoxins  and  vaccines  are  tested  at  the  Hygienic  Laboratory,  U.  S.  Public  Health  Service, 

Washington,  D.  C. 

Acts  as  a  clearing  house  of  information  on  health  matters  for  labor  and 
the  industries. 

Prescribes  conditions  for  use  of  tetraethyl  lead  in  gasoline ;  investigates 
health  hazards  in  industry ;  value  of  sunlight ;  factory  and  office  illumina- 
tion; and  many  other  things  which  benefit  the  worker. 

Designates  places  where  trains  and  vessels  may  take  water  supplies 
and  regulates  the  travel  of  diseased  persons. 

Assists  the  various  States  in  establishing  full-time  county  health  de- 
partments and  in  farm  sanitation. 

Cooperates  with  the  States  to  control  venereal  infections. 

Investigates  the  diseases  of  children  and  demonstrates  child  hygiene. 


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